Filming In Low Light Help needed

[Kneichion]

Hi can someone point me to a link or advise about Filming in Dark Locations.
I have a Sony HVR- V1P
So far the Automatic settings are a bit hit and miss, anything in a dark lighting, rather than has blacks its more grey, and the picture quality drops dramatically. So much so you wouldnt know it was filmed in HD.
I know its not a night cam, and do use lighting for Interviews, But the filming I am doing I need to record some night shots to capture the atmosphere. So far this has had bad results.
I havent even gone to low light levels yet. So I really need to get up to speed on it.
I am not going to pretend I know what I am doing yet. But I do come from a technical and professional photographer back ground. Its a steep learning curve at the moment.
I have had a play with Iris controls, and some with shutter speeds, but naturally this is quite different to Taking Still shots, what I have found is that, if you slow the shutter speed to far any motion becomes Jagged, Jumpy or Blurred. And again as before, Rather than Blacks, Its Grey and Noisy.
So the Question is what would be the best Settings?
None of the footage is fast moving, which naturally you couldnt do in low lighting.
The manual tells you how to adjust the settings, but not what would be best to use in Filming in cases like I want to use. I may be missing the obvious.
Would really appreciate any advice, Links
Many thanks in advance Andy.

[Grinner Hester]

Film and video are two different things. I was unable to undeerstand which you are shooting.
If filming, wide open at slow speeds does wonders. If shooting video, wide open with the slowest shutter speeds eats more light… at the expense of strobe. I like a 15 shutter in bars and such. Adding a camera light helps and of course, you’ll crank most or your whites in post. Yuo will indeed get grain this way but that’s to be expected and always looks better than a dark image.

[Author]

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